People with drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB) are still not receiving two newer tuberculosis (TB) drugs, bedaquiline and delamanid, which have shown improved cure rates for the disease, said the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) at the 48th Union World Conference on Lung Health in Guadalajara, Mexico, where the global TB community is meeting.

Ahead of the G20 summit in Hamburg, where global health is on the agenda for the first time, the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) called on G20 leaders to follow through on the declaration made by their health ministers in late May.

NEW YORK, MARCH 24, 2017—Today, World Tuberculosis Day, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières’ (MSF) is urging pharmaceutical corporations, Sequella and Pfizer, to provide open access to all existing clinical data on a promising drug, sutezolid, to help accelerate the research and development of urgently needed new, lifesaving TB treatment regimes. This data, if not released, will take years and resources to replicate, further delaying new treatment options for people living with TB.

While deal marks a critical step in the fight against TB, health groups warn that the deal lacks safeguards that would ensure worldwide affordability

NEW YORK, JANUARY 20, 2017—The international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) began a new clinical trial this week in Uzbekistan to develop a radically improved course of treatment for drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB).

The trial aims to find a treatment regimen for DR-TB that is drastically shorter, more effective, and causes fewer side effects than the current treatment options.

NEW YORK/LIVERPOOL, OCTOBER 26, 2016 – At the annual Union World Conference on Lung Health, which started in Liverpool today, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is sharing its experience of using the new tuberculosis drugs bedaquiline and delamanid to treat people with drug-resistant TB. MSF is also involved in two clinical trials to test new TB treatments, both of which will start enrolling patients soon.

“The World Health Organization’s annual look at the global state of tuberculosis this year makes for a shockingly bad report card: countries are failing to diagnose and treat millions of people with TB, which caused 1.8 million deaths last year. Governments need to get their heads out of the sand and realize that TB is not a disease consigned to the 1800s; we see and treat TB in our clinics every day, and it’s a deadly threat to all of us.

"Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) welcomes the United Nations’s (UN) Political Declaration Antimicrobial Resistance, which recognizes the need to address – at the highest political levels – the complex issue of drug-resistant infections, which affect people in every part of the world. Now, governments have the responsibility to turn these words into action and fully implement nationally-tailored plans and global commitments to combat antimicrobial resistance (AMR).

"The sustainable development goals (SDGs) adopted with much fanfare just a year ago seek to end HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria by 2030. The replenishment of the Global Fund is the first concrete action taken by the international community since the adoption of these goals, and therefore a first test of the world leaders' will to make them a reality. Failure to reach the relatively modest Global Fund's replenishment target would be a clear message that the SDGs were but empty promises to the millions who, every year, continue to suffer and die from HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria."